This invention relates to a shoe with a central fastener, especially a sport, leisure or rehabilitation shoe, with a central fastener provided on a rigid instep cover that is movable toward or away from the instep, and having a fastener from which a rope-like tightening element connected to it extends toward both sides and which can be brought back to the instep cover by a guide element provided on the side portions of the upper.
Such a shoe is known from German Auslegeschrift 23 41 658. There, a central fastening device in the form of a rotatable toggle is provided on a tongue-like middle upper of a ski boot which, for easier access at the toe, is connected to the foreshoe in a jointed manner. A tightening rope runs from this central fastening device both upward and downward, basically, crosswise to the middle upper. This tightening rope forms a loop on the outside and, after a crosswise return through the middle upper and after formation of another loop on the other side edge of the middle upper at the same height as the respective first loop, it is fastened to the middle upper. The loops, opposite one another, are located in the area of the bend of the foot at the end of the instep, i.e., in the joint at the transition to the lower leg. The two other loops are provided in the area of the ball of the big toe or of the metatarsophalangeal joints.
Hooks are formed on the upper material of the ski boot. In the position of the middle upper that can be swung against the upper, the loops are laid over the hooks and, by rotation of the toggle, the tightening rope is put under tension by a rope roller connected to the toggle and, thus, the ski boot is tightly closed. In this case, the tensile stress acts in each case perpendicular to the extension of the middle upper, which in each case covers the side uppers.
With this configuration, a good access is indeed possible in the open condition. But with closure, applying the loops over the hooks is bothersome and time-consuming and especially a problem when hooks are clogged with snow or ice.
Other ski boots with central closures are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,270 and German Offenlequinqsschrift 3,626,837. These patents are discussed in the referenced co-pending application.
In the reference co-pending patent application, a shoe with an upper material that is deformable relative to tensile stresses in the closing area or with several deformable upper materials, i.e., flexible materials instead of the rigid ones used to form the shell-shaped upper parts of ski boots, especially sport, leisure or rehabilitation shoes, is provided with a central fastener. The central fastener is attached at a top end of the tongue of the shoe and a tightening element runs from the central fastener, through guide grooves or recesses, in the direction of the toe of the shoe alternately over a guide element of a side part of the shoe, then over a guide element at the tongue or crosses over the tongue, then runs at least over another guide element of the side part and, optionally, over other guide elements at the tongue, to the lower area of tongue and from where, in the case of a one-piece tightening element, it is brought back to central fastener along the opposite side of the tongue, or in case of a tightening element consisting of two sections, its ends are fastened there or on side parts.